


Golden Knights

by A Magiluna Stormwriter (ariestess)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Community: onceuponaland, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2012-11-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 20:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/665931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariestess/pseuds/A%20Magiluna%20Stormwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All her life, Kathryn knew there was something different out there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Knights

**Author's Note:**

> Date Written: 25 October 2012  
> Word Count: 782  
> Written for: [](http://onceuponaland.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://onceuponaland.livejournal.com/)**onceuponaland** 's Round 3 bingo challenge  
> Prompt: Kathryn - childhood memories  
> Summary: All her life, Kathryn knew there was something different out there.  
> Spoilers: Consider all of S1 fair game.  
> Warnings: No standard warnings apply.  
> Website: ShatterStorm Productions – Doggie Duo  
> Link to: <http://bdkk.shatterstorm.net/>  
> Archive: ShatterStorm Productions & AO3 only…all others ask for permission & we'll see…
> 
> Author’s Disclaimer: "Once Upon a Time," the characters, and situations depicted are the property of Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, Kitsis/Horowitz, and ABC Studios. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. This site is in no way affiliated with "Once Upon a Time," ABC, or any representatives of the actors.
> 
> Author’s Notes: Jane Espenson and her writing sprints on Twitter make me so very happy! This was written during one of them.
> 
> Dedication: My muses, as always…
> 
> Beta: Not currently beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. I'll fix anything pointed out to me via _constructive_ criticism.

All her life, Kathryn knew there was something different out there. She'd grown up in Storybrooke, knew practically everyone in town, but she never quite felt like it was right. She would wander out into the woods behind her parents' home and get lost for hours on end. Every time her father brought home a castle with princesses and knights and dragons, she would painstakingly pick out a knight that she liked the most and cover it in gold paint. She never understood why she did it, but she always did. There were dozens of golden knights in her bedroom and playroom, all separated from their princesses. After a time, her father stopped bringing home the sets. He tried to say she was too old for such frippery, but she'd once overheard him talking to her mother about how it wasn't seemly to be focused on such a strange obsession as to need to have a cursed golden knight for every princess she owned.

When she turned thirteen, she packed up all of her castles, dragons, knights, and princesses into several large boxes that were taken down to the children's ward at the hospital or her family's church for the Sunday school kids. Well, not all. The golden knights and the one princess she'd always felt looked the most like herself were kept. She'd gathered them all into a single small trunk with a proper lock on it. She'd found a lovely piece of gold-colored silk in Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop that he let her have for far less than it was worth, saying that it was a special sale day. She remembered wanting to question him about it, but she never did. She just gave him the money she'd saved up and took the silk scarf and her change like the proper young lady her parents had trained her to be. The silk lined the trunk, cushioning her knights and her princess from the hard cedar lining it. Once they were all placed inside, in order from oldest to newest -- because she could always tell their order, no matter what -- she closed the lid and locked it with the key that remained on a gold silk cord around her neck. The trunk was stashed in the back of her closet, behind some old baby clothes that her mother insisted be kept to be turned into a quilt for her future grandchildren. Kathryn knew it was safe there, at least for a time.

Over the next five years, she would occasionally dig out the trunk and remember. Each knight came out and was talked to and cooed over, just like always. She could recite every story she'd ever come up with for them. And her Princess Abigail figurine always came out first, set aside to watch over all of her golden knights as they came out of the trunk.

On her eighteenth birthday, she received a beautiful leather journal as a gift from Mr. Gold, of all people. He'd said that all young women, upon becoming an adult, should have a journal to record the memories of their childhood for posterity. She thought it was an oddly intimate gift from a man who was a virtual stranger, but she politely thanked him anyway. And then promptly spent the rest of the weekend, as well as every spare minute of the next two weeks, writing down the stories for each and every one of her golden knights, from oldest to newest. It all fit perfectly, as if it was meant to be. She got pictures taken of each knight to go with the stories, intending to maybe give the book to her own children one day. On the very last page, she managed to put in a picture of Princess Abigail and a brief story about her, too. It took a bit of reorganizing, but she managed to fit the journal into the trunk with the silk, the golden knights, and Princess Abigail.

When she moved out into her first apartment, she found the trunk again and took it with her. It was comforting to have them in her new home, a reminder of things past. Even when she moved in with David, she kept it with her, never showing anyone, but always knowing it was there.

When the curse broke, she finally understood why it had been so important to keep that trunk of golden knights with her always, why she'd wanted to be called Abigail for a few years as a child. Even if they weren't real memories to the real Princess Abigail, they still felt indelibly real to Kathryn, and she wouldn't let go of them for anything.


End file.
